Tuesday, January 08, 2013

J&J Faces First Vaginal Mesh Implant Trial in New Jersey

J and J will defend its produt in the first trial over its vaginal mesh implant in a case brought by a South Dakota woman who blames the product for constant pain and 18 subsequent operations.

The lawsuit by Linda Gross, 47, is the first of 1,800 in state court in New Jersey to go to trial over whether J&J’s Ethicon unit adequately warned of the risks of the device.

Jury selection begins this week when more than 100 potential jurors began filling out questionnaires.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told J&J, C.R. Bard Inc. and 31 other manufacturers last January to study rates of organ damage and complications linked to implants. Doctors implanted more than 70,000 mesh devices in U.S. women in 2010, threading them through incisions in the vagina to fortify pelvic muscles that failed to support internal organs.